What really happens behind the Pearly Gates
See, God or Allah or Goddess or the Almighty–whatever you call Him or Her, produces this Earth Show.
He’s hired a director, someone like Jesus or Buddha, except maybe they’ve never been planetary-bound, maybe someone like St. Oleander or Baba Racha or Sister Angellica Ruth.
We’re all souls, looking maybe like eggs in a carton, or maybe we’re flying around on invisible wings, behind the stage, waiting to audition.
Let’s call our director St. Archie. He’s smoking a Cuban cigar and sports a two-day beard.
St. Archie
“First call!” he shouts and the invisible souls rush toward him.
“One at a time!” he hollers, “We’ve got a million bodies coming up! Enough for all of you.”
He consults his clipboard.
“I’ve got a body down in Cleveland,” he says, “That’s USA. Good solid parents, sister with Down’s Syndrome, cross country in high school, studies to be a physician, dead of heart attack at 45. Anyone interested?”
Six souls rush over, sounds good, can we take it, please, let me, oh I’ve always wanted to be a physician and help people heal!
St. Archie points toward one of the souls, “You! Good, excellent. You lived so long last time with your Alzheimer’s, it will be good for you to come back sooner. Sure you want it?”
"Anyone want to be a cow? Good Georgia grazing fields!"
“Another body!” he announces, “Calcutta, India. No money. Two devout Hindu parents. Possibility of enlightenment in this lifetime, or at least advancement. Rough childhood, some starvation. Second half of life, monastery. Anyone interested?”
Sixteen souls raise their invisible hands. St. Archie shrugs his shoulders. It’s a heavy load picking the best players for the show.
“You, how ’bout you?” he says, pointing at one of the invisibles. “You did that prison term last time in Siberia and got really spiritual. You’d be good at this one. Heck, you might be able to reconcile everything this time and not have to try out for another play.”
He continues down his endless sheet of acting positions.
Sixty souls beg for early death–they’ve got other things to do in Heaven–small details to karmically clean up on earth.
It's the Greatest Show on Earth!
“It’s the greatest show on earth!” St. Archie bellows, as a small contingency of souls gathers in the wings. “You’ll act your part for five or forty or eighty years, and then you get to come home. Act your heart out, people! It will be over so quickly, you’ll never know what hit you! You have a chance to learn, to embody a personality, to share your heart. You’ll get to grow, expand–maybe even realize what’s Beyond the Play! Not everyone gets a part… Now who wants a rather uneventful life in Germany, not much potential for opening the heart, but it’s a good starter two-bit part. Any newcomer souls? Anyone interested?”
**OK, readers, so sorry–I tried to meditate this morning but “lost it” in this little fantasy explaining why life on earth might be “fair”. See yesterday’s post if you’re confused. And, yes, you could call me “irreverent”, but “creative” sounds better, doesn’t it?
We had about a foot of snow yesterday and, according to my earth-script, it’s time to quit philosophizing and take out Ms. Canon Rebel and get some photos, don’t you think?
Lake Superior Spirit 
CREATIVE sounds waaaaay better!
And Miss Kathy, I just learned that “Little Pickle Press” is soliciting children’s chapter books. I’d love it if you’d check it out (see top right corner on their home page) and send them some of your wonderful creative work. Here’s a link: http://www.littlepicklepress.com/
I looked, I thought, I pondered, I maybe will do something! Thank you, Miss Laurie. I love the Little Pickle Press.
Oh Kathy, what fun !! You certainly capture how my own imagination believes it is. It is all over so quickly, no matter how long it lasts here on Earth !! Enjoy the fresh fallen snow, I’m looking forward to seeing more than the sprinkling we got yesterday, in our very mild Missouri winter.
Isn’t it fun to imagine, Deb? I’m glad your imagination goes the same way mine does. I hope you get more than a sprinkling of snow. Do you have snowplows down there? How do you get rid of your snow?
Very creative and I really enjoyed the fantasy here!
OK, Ms. Purpleborough, it was REALLY fun to write this morning! I am glad you enjoyed. I am headed over to your blog, soon as possible, to see you.
An irreverent post, perhaps, but such a fun perspective on life in this body on this earth at this time. Thank you for making me smile! 🙂
Gosh, Reggie, me irreverent? **smile** I am reverent about ALL of life! (Maybe not just our cultural opinions about how life should be…) Glad I made you smile. I made my son roll his eyes. LOL!
You are so creative Kathy….very clever 🙂 I think you should look into that link Laurie suggested….I can totally see you writing children’s books! Wow…you got about a foot of snow! That’s a lot of snow! Can’t wait to see your beautiful pictures 🙂 We only got barely enough to cover the lawn, but it was all sparkly and pretty this morning. ♥
I am really–truly–really, Brenda–aiming to get outside this afternoon with the sulking camera. (Been out once at 11 degrees this morning for a walk up and down the road, not much weeping involved, but some.) Don’t you love those sparkly and pretty snow moments?
We got a dusting of snow yesterday that, by noon today, is almost all gone. I want more snow.
😦 gigi
Gigi, maybe, perhaps you’re getting some today? I hope so. Snow is good in the wintertime… Otherwise, how will we appreciate summer enough?
Love it! Thank you!
Isn’t it amazing how creativity can hijack us and not let us go until it’s finished? I just saw a video how some creative types are prone to madness. I am hoping that is not my fate…
Oh, and I’ll take the rather uneventful life in Germany as I was born there and would love to learn more about it.
😉 gigi
Barry was born in Germany, too, and he said the same thing. That’s the life he’s choosing!
This post is a great example of what we we talking about the other day – how you so creatively illustrate your stories. This funny story popped into your head and you were able to choose shots to illustrate. I wish I could do that. I have thousands of photos on this computer (I should probably do a bit of cleaning and organizing of that) but I really wonder if I’d be able to find pictures to go with the thoughts that pop into my brain from time to time, begging to be blogged. Sometimes the poor little beggars go unblogged because I think I have no pictures.
Oh yes, oh yes, Karma, you do so have the pictures! I swear you do. If you don’t think you have the photos, you are thinking too literally. We need to pop in photos that remind us of our subject–but they don’t have to literally be an example of our subject. So if you’re blogging about the moon, put a photo of something round and white, perhaps a reflection in a puddle. If you’re talking about an emotion, just try to find a person who is exhibiting that emotion–or if you’re talking about someone hoarding something, put in a squirrel or chippy with a nut in its mouth. I swear you do have every single photo you need to illustrate EVERYTHING you want to write. Just make it be a metaphor, a simile, a hint.
Take Archie, up above. I was just cruisin’ around in my folder after writing this. The name of the guy in heaven making assignments in my original story was St. Steven. Suddenly I saw the bulldog photo, cropped it close so you could see the name “Archie” and then went & changed Steven’s name to Archie. Because, obviously, someone who is assigning lives would have to be a bit of a bulldog, right?
Thanks for reminding me to have a look back over here! I do have a tendency to think very literally. As creative as I’d like to think that I am, that’s where I get stuck an awful lot. I think I get photographically stuck too – I take photos of many of the same subjects again and again either because I like them or I don’t see the fun and creativity in different shots. I’ll try to keep this idea in mind when future beggars pop into my mind.
To me, this is far from irreverent. I find this a very moving, reverent post. Some of us are very limited in our thinking, experience, knowledge.
You help me to see things differently.
Oh good! You think this is reverant. (So did I, but I was a little nervous that some people might have locked shut their minds and put heavy locks & chains on them, so you never know…) I am glad you don’t have locks & chains on your mind. That’s one reason I like you so much!
I like this market possibility for why life may be fair 🙂 I am not a storyteller along these lines at all. I could do nonfiction (and perhaps this IS nonfiction?), but I am NOT a fiction writer. Enjoying your creativity!
Heather, my goodness, I know not where this little story came from. I kinda liked it, though. Who knows what happens in-between lives? And who knows if this is nonfiction or fiction? Maybe a little of both? **smile**
I LOVE this, Kathy. Hardly irreverent–just great story-telling–damn good story-telling!
By the way, we got maybe a half inch of snow here last night. Cool, isn’t it? And–been working on something today for you. Did you get my email last night?
Hugs,
Kathy
Damn good storytelling! I am hiring you as my PR person, Kathy from Kentucky, gosh, yes, you are so cool. I got your email…emails…we are on a ROLL Ms. Kathy, we are indeed.
I like your “fantasy,” Kathy and wish in my heart of hearts that maybe it’s somewhat true. “It will be over so quickly, you’ll never know what hit you!” Ah – yes – I think this one hits home.
Ah yes, how quickly our lives fly by, and don’t you especially know it. If I were a bettin’ girl, I might bet somewhat on this story, but am waiting until Afterward to see how close the scenario turns out to be!
Definitely time to get the camera out so we can enjoy all that fresh snow. We got 3 inches…plenty for me! Even less down in Troy at work.
We saw that you were getting snow down south, Dawn. Three inches sounds beautiful. I am…almost…ready to go outside with the camera. Unless something more exciting happens inside, like perhaps a cup of tea. 🙂
Oh, most definitely creative, Ms. Kathy. 🙂
I wish I could come up with long comments for your wonderful posts, but I think St. Archie must have cast me in a part where the words flow like crazy for years and years (even if I do nothing with them), and then suddenly I want to crash into silence.
Hey, I know what you mean, Robin, sort of. I can watch the words flow every single day for ages, and then they suddenly dry up (like today) except, really, they haven’t dried up because–look!–they’re appearing, like magic. But crashing into silence is good. OK, maybe not crashing. Maybe just quietly turning off the word-switch. 🙂
Love this, Kathy! Like Robin, though, I have no idea where to even begin commenting on it. My bit part in this Play Called Life must involve being creative in spurts and then sitting back with slack-jawed reverence and admiration for others’ creativity at other times. 🙂 Beautiful post.
Dana, I often wonder how anyone can come up with a single comment to some of these crazy things which sprout out my ears! I am almost always slack-jawed with reverence and admiration when I visit YOUR blog. I also want those red boots, even though I have never worn red boots in my entire life. Thank you.
Except maybe Archie didn’t put me down for red boots in this lifetime. Hmmm….
I think I got the Red Boots part this time around… still waiting for the next scenes to unfold so I can confirm. You can audition for the part next time… they are some pretty great looking boots. 🙂
Hi Kathy, I think our imaginations might have visited some of the same places. This is how I like to picture it too.
So glad you love the Little Pickle Press……this story is way more than just delightful 🙂
Thank you, Ms. Colleen…I am not surprised that our imaginations travel down similar roads. The Little Pickle Press is awesome–especially its name!